


Anosmia

by misbehavingvigilante



Series: Tales Inspired by the Discord Year 2 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha Steve Rogers, Alpha Tony Stark, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Disability, Getting Together, M/M, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-25 10:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22394560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: In another world, it may have not been as much of a problem.The ability to smell was useful and it wasn’t as trivial as some made it out to be though one could often navigate life with it with few problems, in regards to being unable to detect gas leaks, tell if food had gone bad, or even taste food properly. All in all, the worst aspect of it was probably people who minimized the loss as nothing, or regarded it as the best sense to lose, and how that in turn impacted the medical community when needing resources and treatment.However, in the world, Tony Stark was born into, smell was a big thing.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Tales Inspired by the Discord Year 2 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1561894
Comments: 24
Kudos: 110
Collections: POTS (18+) Stony Stocking 2019





	Anosmia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ArcadeGhostAdventurer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcadeGhostAdventurer/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [ArcadeGhostAdventurer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcadeGhostAdventurer/pseuds/ArcadeGhostAdventurer) in the [stony_stocking_2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/stony_stocking_2019) collection. 



> Back again with more trope inversion with abo. 
> 
> I did some light research into anosmia however this is not a condition I have myself and thus while I attempted to do it justice, please forgive my blunders. 
> 
> With that said, enjoy~!

In another world, it may have not been as much of a problem.

The ability to smell was useful and it wasn’t as trivial as some made it out to be though one could often navigate life with it with few problems, in regards to being unable to detect gas leaks, tell if food had gone bad, or even taste food properly. All in all, the worst aspect of it was probably people who minimized the loss as nothing, or regarded it as the best sense to lose, and how that in turn impacted the medical community when needing resources and treatment.

However, in the world, Tony Stark was born into, smell was a big thing.

At first, no one had really noticed anything was wrong, he was too small to communicate much of anything so there were no outward signs. Of course, naturally nothing remains hidden forever so the truth came to light.

He had been born with anosmia, the inability to smell.

Tony had been old enough then to hear his father yell at his mother even if he didn’t quite understand why he was blaming her, or why it was such a big deal in the first place. He was a remarkable child in everything else he did, so why did this one little thing matter so much?

They kept fighting, they kept talking about him like he was broken, and so all the more Tony tried to remind his parents of all his talents by being too bright for his age, by building more and more elaborate things in hopes that they could focus on that instead.

It doesn’t work.

After he learnt more about secondary genders, after he learnt about how smell signaled so much in their world from gender, marital status, emotions and a dozen of other things, then he started to understand.

Then, he started to feel the loss.

He grows up in a wealthy family, so even though his sense of taste is somewhat dulled by the inability to smell at all, the rich foods he can taste are still a pleasant experience. It’s nice to not be completely turned off from the idea of food, even if Tony knows he doesn’t have the full experience.

If he was less fortunate, how difficult would it have been to force himself to eat when everything tastes bland and mush like and the only thing that made anything different at all was texture?

But he is not poor, so it is never a lesson he has to learn.

There’s unfortunately no real way to hide his anosmia from the public at all, as much as he memorizing as much as he’s told that you can simply tell by body language what someone is or isn’t something that Tony finds out is remarkably untrue. He just can’t pick up on the cues that everyone else does without having the same range of senses. 

He can mimic them, and mirror them, but it’s always an incomplete charade that gets seen through, and in these circles, it spreads far and fast.

It doesn’t help that he does things that Alphas shouldn’t do apparently. That he is too friendly with other Alphas, that in his disability he must be mistaking them for Omegas with how he brazen he acts and how he flirts.

Tony has been put in front of Omegas before, he has been told that they are an Omega, and told that he is an Alpha, and that he is supposed to feel some sort of attraction or an inherent pull.

He doesn’t.

The only time he feels like that is with other Alphas.

Which he quickly learns is not how things are done, and they continue to blame it on his anosmia because that has to be the reason, right?

He can’t be an Alpha likes other Alphas, right?

Tony is, but he gets to keep the secret for far longer.

It all blows up when he is a teen, and then he is labelled a freak not only due to his disability but with his attraction to other Alphas.

His father is very disappointed, which isn’t new, his father is always disappointed.

However, neither of his parents have to live with this knowledge for very long before they’re taken away from him, and he gets the new title of orphan.

In the end, as alone as Tony feels he isn’t alone, he has Obie.

This turns out to be a grievous mistake.

Tony can’t pinpoint where the man turned against him. He doesn’t know if that’s better or worse than knowing with certainty what was the turning point when he stopped looking at Tony like family, and instead like a threat to his future.

But he has Iron Man now, that has to be enough.

It doesn’t stop him from almost dying, it doesn’t stop the expanse of a seas of stars from haunting his dreams. It doesn’t stop him from wondering about what happens next, what happens if there another alien invasion, because there has to be, there will be, there will be…

It doesn’t stop the Avengers from piling into his home like a bunch of broken dolls, careful and cautious of each other, as if they hadn’t just saved the world together.

Even if Tony had been the one that invited them in, even if he wishes some days that he should have kept to SHIELD’s ludicrous bodyguard story, and be able to hide himself away underneath enough metal and repulsors to keep anything and everything away from him.

It’s not and that doesn’t turn out to be a bad thing in the end.

It’s not all at once, but happens all the same, that the Avengers slide from co-workers to family in a matter of months, no bonding experience like almost dying several times amongst each other in the city of New York, and elsewhere is there?

Despite the fact, he cares for all of his teammates, he does resoundingly have a favorite.

A favorite from his childhood, that thinking back might have been the starting point for his attraction to Alphas.

Captain America is both nothing and everything he expects. 

Tony knows that Steve isn't as old fashioned as some people hoped he would be since he is from the forties. A period many looked back with idealism as they lament the current state of the world.

It's hard to not feel like these people are idiots when Steve's wartime sweetheart had been Peggy Carter. Who most notably had been a Beta and while it wasn't nearly as scandalous as an Alpha being with another Alpha, it had still been frowned upon. Back then straying from the idea that many people thought natural that was Alphas and Omegas belonged together had been much more of a social taboo however oddly enough the war had done much in normalizing such relationships as rarely were Omegas wanted anywhere in war. 

Not that it hadn't happened of course, if someone was determined enough to want to go to war, they'd end up on the battlefield somehow.

Steve, after all, had gotten into the army through less than legal means. 

In the 21st century, Alphas being together wasn't as much of a taboo that it had been when Tony had realized about two decades ago that was where his attraction laid but it still whipped the media into a frenzy and maybe thought it was unnatural. 

His failed relationship with Pepper had been chalked up to of course two Alphas couldn't make it work rather than them just working better as friends and wanting different things out of life. 

Still, all of that was a matter of public record, so it wasn’t as if Steve didn’t know. He had never said anything to Tony about it which seemed about as much of approval as he could get without directly asking Steve his thoughts on it. 

He does know at least for Steve the matter of his anosmia wouldn’t be an issue as Steve had been disabled before the serum, and even after the serum still continued to fight for disability rights, he wouldn’t be shunned as a potential partner because of that. 

Steve was too good of a man for such things. 

Tony was still a little scared of doing just that, it seemed silly with all the things in his life that he had faced thus far, but the sting of rejection never lessened with time. Knowing it could come from someone he cared too much about, that he wanted so much more from… perhaps it was just simply better to pine away in silence. 

As life continues to surprise him on the regular, that isn’t what happens. 

Steve fetched him coffee, there wasn’t anything really unusual about that. Tony happily drinks from it, knowing from the beans they’ve been roasted from that he can at least taste something from the rich liquid. It’s probably part of the reason he liked coffee so much, it was something that he could taste. Even though it had also gotten him labelled as a coffee snob when he shirked from cheap, poor coffee because the flavor was bland in them from poorly harvested or scorched beans. 

Despite the fact that Steve did usually make a fuss about how he sometimes spent his money, this was one indulgence in which Steve had never once called him out about. 

Maybe it was because if there was no alternative, that Tony would drink the coffee, not for the taste but for the sweet, sweet mistress that was caffeine. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Tony asked, when Steve continued to stare at him, coffee still in hand as he was seated in his workshop, overlooking his workbench. “Do I smell?” Tony made a mimicry of scenting the air even if the action was virtually worthless to him. 

He used suppressants to mask his scent as was common courtesy, while he couldn’t smell himself, others could smell him, but he had no way of knowing how to control that without his own nose to go by thus suppressants. 

The pheromones and signals were pretty much worthless to him, after all. 

Even so, it wasn’t all bad, sometimes not being able to smell was a blessing. Sometimes people describe other scents as being cloying or overwhelming so he never had that problem. 

“No! You never smell badly.” 

Tony blinked, that seemed like an overly reactive response. “...Okay? That’s good to know. Anyways, thanks for the coffee.”

Tony expected Steve to leave however he didn’t so he raised an eyebrow in turn. “Did I forget to eat again or something? I know you also like feeding me but I’m pretty sure I just ate like an hour ago, unlike you, I don’t have a superhuman metabolism.” 

“Well, I did want to ask you if you wanted to go to dinner…” Steve said, not meeting his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck, and looking flushed. 

Tony blinked and then blinked again. Steve was feeling shy in front of him. 

Even blushing in front of him, that wasn’t too new as sometimes Tony told dirty jokes in order to see Steve go scarlet, but he had never quite earned a reaction like this before. All he was doing was drinking coffee. 

He ran through the words again. 

“...like dinner dinner? Like a date? Me?” Tony asked. 

Steve nodded. “Yes.” 

“...Are you practicing asking me out so you can ask someone else out? Is that what this is…?” 

Steve narrowed his eyes, making a face. “What? Tony, no, I wouldn’t do that. I’m asking you on a date, if you want to.” 

“Jarvis, have I hit my head recently?” Tony wondered aloud, this all felt a little too surreal. 

“Not recently, sir. Might I endeavor to suggest you prevent such things in the future for your continued health?” 

“Not likely.” Tony muttered under his breath, and into his coffee cup as he took another drink. Judging by the look on Steve’s face, he had heard the comment and wasn’t happy about it, but that’s just the kind of person that Tony was, so Steve would have to deal. 

“Okay, so not a joke, and not a concussion… for real?” Tony asked again, requiring clarification. 

“Yes.” Steve said earnestly. “I genuinely and wholeheartedly want to go on a date with you, and no one else.” 

“It’s going to be a publicity nightmare.” Tony reminded though not unkindly, it wasn’t like he didn’t like the suggestion. He liked the suggestion a lot, but Steve hadn’t been dealing with the press as long as he had. 

“I don’t care.” Steve shrugged. “Do you?” 

“I came out as an Alpha loving deviant in my teens, Steve.” Tony rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing they can say to me that they haven’t before but you’re Captain America…” 

“And you’re Iron Man.”

“Not really the same weight of the mantle there but okay.” Tony acquiesced sensing a brewing fight if he continued and he wasn’t very much interested in that. “So if we’re both on the fuck the press front, then it shouldn’t matter what we do on out first date, does it? They’ll talk regardless so we might as well do what we want.” 

“I have some ideas.” 

“Surprise me.” Tony smiled, as he trusted Steve on the battlefield and off, what harm was it in allowing Steve to plan their first date? This still all felt way too unreal, like he was going to wake up and this was all going to be a dream that his pinning brain had dreamt up, but for now he would allow himself to be present and happy in this moment. 


End file.
